A symbolic link ("symlink") is a reference to a file or folder which may exist on the same or another drive in the system. Symbolic links allow users to create a more logical file layout, when the files themselves may be spread across multiple disks or relocated to more convenient locations.
24
votes
7answers
34k views
How do I create a link in Windows 7 home premium as a regular user?
I am a Linux guy and as such I am very lost when I try and do anything is Windows. I am trying to create the following link:
mklink /d C:\backup\data \\myth\backup\data
But I do not have sufficient ...
23
votes
3answers
2k views
What are the various link types in Windows? How do I create them?
Is it possible to link two files or folders without having a different extension under Windows?
I'm looking for functionality equivalent to the soft and hard links in Unix.
Background:
I have a ...
20
votes
8answers
43k views
Create a symbolic link in the Mac OS X Finder
Is there a way to get the same functionality as the unix command ln -s in the Mac OS X Finder (OS 10.5)? I want to be able to create symbolic links while working in Finder windows without opening the ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Does window have the ln -s or equivalent?
I need to link a file to c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.
How can I do that with windows? Is there a soft link such as 'ln -s' or equivalent in Windows?
36
votes
2answers
15k views
directory junction vs directory symbolic link?
MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target
/D Creates a directory symbolic link. Default is a file symbolic link.
/H Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
/J ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
Tab-completion with directories/links
I have this problem with tab-completion in terminal in both archlinux and ubuntu:
I have a link which links to a directory named "something" in my home directory. Now when I open a terminal and want ...
8
votes
2answers
4k views
Finding all symbolic and hard links to a file on UNIX
If I have a specific file in a UNIX filesystem, is there a way to use bash to find all links to that file, both symbolic and hard? If I need different commands for each, what are they?
2
votes
3answers
240 views
How can I find out if a symbolic link exists, that points to /tmp?
I want to find out which symlinks exist, that point to my /tmp folder on Ubuntu.
Background:
I had a problem, that my /tmp folder privileges were changed by some accident to 755.
The system wasn't ...
0
votes
0answers
270 views
Linking directories in c:\Windows on Windows 7 64bit
I bought a SSD to make it C:. As SSD size is pretty small, I'm trying to reduce the number of files in C:. After running WinDirStat, I found that 4.6G of space is used for c:\Windows\Installer.
Is ...
2
votes
1answer
76 views
symlinks for admin users on Windows
On Windows you can create symlinks
either if you start the programm, you want to create a symlink in (e.g. cmd), as Administrator.
or if you give your user/usergroup the permission to create ...
0
votes
1answer
179 views
How to improve this bash shell script for turning hardlinks into symlinks?
This shell script is mostly the work of other people. It has gone through several iterations, and I have tweaked it slightly while also trying to fully understand how it works. I think I understand it ...
0
votes
2answers
871 views
How to stop Windows 7 Built-in-Backup creating a System Image of too many drives?
I do not want to include (D:) drive in the image.
I believe I know the cause of this, it's because I have some Directory Junctions and/or Symbolic Links.
Any suggestions other than removing the ...
37
votes
5answers
40k views
How can I delete a symbolic link?
I created a symlink using mklink. Now I need to change it but I can't figure out how to delete it so I can recreate it correctly.
5
votes
3answers
5k views
How can I find all symlinks in Windows Vista or 7?
I'm looking for a way to search for all the symbolic links on a NTFS filesystem on Windows Vista or 7.
It would be even better if I could specify a specific target to see if it has any symlinks ...
11
votes
2answers
8k views
How do I create a relative symbolic link in Linux?
I need a symlink that resolves relative to the directory it is placed in. What command is used to create such a thing?
10
votes
2answers
5k views
What is the difference between Symbolic Link and Shortcut?
What is the difference between a Symbolic Link and a Shortcut?
6
votes
2answers
15k views
How to find all soft links (symbolic links) in current directory?
Question relates to shell-scripting in bash.
How to check with a script which files within the current directory are soft links?
In case I have used the wrong term, when I say soft links, I am ...
5
votes
2answers
9k views
Does Windows7 support symbolic links (folder 'shortcuts')?
I see W7 seems to have more support for virtual folders, that don't correspond to actual directories on the disk. Does it also support proper symbolic links so I can e.g create a symbolic link ...
4
votes
3answers
564 views
VIM destroys symbolic links under Windows
It seems that when working with a file in VIM it primarily uses a backup version of the file then overwrites the original on save. This is a problem when using symbolic links under Windows (e.g. ...
6
votes
1answer
4k views
How do you make a symbolic link with a relative path using mklink?
This web page implies that it is possible to make symbolic links with relative paths using mklink.
I have tried all sorts of ways to make relative symbolic links, but I always end up with an absolute ...
1
vote
1answer
365 views
Is it possible to have shortcuts appear in the start menu search through a symbolic link?
I have a folder full of stuff that I sync across all my computers and virtual machines. It contains a whole load of stuff, including portable applications.
On a new OS installation, I run a batch ...
0
votes
2answers
376 views
Extracting uncommon components from Windows installed on SSD
I have a 50gb SSD harddisk with windows 7 installed on it. I did this for performance for my windows installation and the related applications (Visual Studio, etc). In a projects folder I also store ...
12
votes
3answers
2k views
Any tool to create symlinks in GUI
I can use mklink, but I am wondering are there any GUI tools available?
4
votes
4answers
3k views
How to copy symlinks to target as normal folders
i have a folder with symlinks:
marek@marek$ ls -al /usr/share/solr/
razem 36
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2010-11-30 08:25 .
drwxr-xr-x 358 root root 12288 2010-11-26 12:25 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 root ...
3
votes
1answer
139 views
Editing softlinked files in UNIX
Let's say I have file A, and using 'ln -s A B', I have B.
When I open, edit and save B, now B is not symlink anymore. It's just a new copy of A.
Is this expected behavior? I use Mac OS X, and I ...
3
votes
3answers
355 views
How to know the level of a symlink in linux?
For example, if a symlink
a -> b
b -> c
c -> d
say, the symlink level of a is 3.
Then, is there any utility to get this info?
And, also I want to get the expansion detail of a symlink, ...
2
votes
1answer
726 views
what is the difference between a symlink , junction , hard link and so on? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the difference between NTFS hard links and directory junctions?
well just got a litlle confused about all of them.
so any explanation?
5
votes
3answers
5k views
Why can't I make a symbolic link (mklink) even when I'm an administrator
When I run mklink /D "C:\Users\bwilliams\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2" "C:\Users\bwilliams\Dropbox\Sublime Text", I get this error `You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation.
...
2
votes
1answer
327 views
Symlink to .vimrc on windows makes file readonly upon write. Why?
I've put my .vimrc file in a central location (dropbox folder, also a hg repository).
Under Windows 7, I've symlinked to it from my home folder (strangely enough I had to do it as an administrator, ...
2
votes
2answers
895 views
Can I move Windows 7 C:\Users more easily using 2 installs of Windows 7? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Moving users folder on Windows Vista/Seven to another partition
I am trying to move my Windows 7 C:\Users folder off of my 64GB SSD onto another drive (A partition on an ...
2
votes
4answers
287 views
Linux: file recovery
I desperately need some help regarding problem I am facing now. While creating a softlink for a very important file I gave the reverse command by mistake. Instead of giving it "ln target linkname" I ...
1
vote
2answers
174 views
Shared home folders between operating systems
After my hard drive calved yet again in my MacBook Pro, I decided to re-do my dual booting. My goal is to triple boot, with OSX 10.6.8 (installed), Windows 7 Home Premium and a flavour of Linux ...
1
vote
4answers
1k views
Ubuntu - Create a link to a specified directory so I can easily change to that directory
Is it possible to create a symlink to a directory, like /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/MyWar that I can access from everywhere? I want to be able to say cd myapp from anywhere in the directory tree and go ...
0
votes
2answers
341 views
symbolic links based on user's id
I'm wondering how to create in linux something like symbolic link, that wil point to different directories for different users seeing it. I was searching for long time for itand found something called ...